China Flexes its Newfound Economic Muscles Print E-mail
Tag it:
Delicious
Furl it!
Mister.Wong
NewsVine
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Technorati
Digg
Written by Our Correspondent
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Page 1 of 2
ImageBeijing cancels a longstanding meeting with the EU over the Dalai Lama
China's cancellation Wednesday of a long-planned annual EU-China summit appears to stem partly from recognition of its new economic might as lender of last resort in the global financial crisis as well as the culmination of three years of deteriorating political relations with the European Union.
Beijing’s pique, following EU leaders’ refusal, in particular French President Niolas Sarvozy, to abandon meetings with the Dalai Lama, deals another severe blow to worsening EU-China relations as well as dashing prospects of closer cooperation in addressing the current global financial and economic crisis.
The growing freeze began with Europe’s 2005 refusal to lift its nearly two-decade arms embargo. There have also been sometimes-tense trade disputes and emotional conflicts over human rights, particularly over Tibet.
China’s slap in the face to the EU is especially interesting as it comes at a time when Beijing appears to have forced the United Kingdom to shift its long-standing recognition of Tibet as a sovereign power. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, announced on October 29 that Britain would recognize the Himalayan kingdom as part of the People’s Republic of China. Tibet expert Robert Barnett, writing in the New York Times, speculated that the realignment could be traced to a request by Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, that China help to top up the International Monetary Fund, which has faced huge drawdowns because of the global financial crisis.
The crisis, Barnett wrote, “is going to do more than increase unemployment, bankruptcy and homelessness. It is also likely to reshape international alignments, sometimes in ways that we would not expect. As Western powers struggle with the huge scale of the measures needed to revive their economies, they have turned increasingly to China.”
The lengthy preparations for the cancelled summit had already been characterized as "disappointing and frustrating" and "lacking in ambition" by diplomats involved in Brussels.
As if to underline other immediate possible collateral damage, President Hu Jintao, in Greece during the week following a far-reaching trip that also took him to Latin America and the Asia-Pacific Summit in Lima, had signed lucrative economic transactions involving €4.3 billion to help develop the Port of Piraeus in Athens.
The cancellation of the meetings puts in considerable doubt near-term high-level contacts and ambitious but difficult negotiations over a broad treaty to seal the "strategic partnership" announced at a previous summit meeting. Beijing had already been recalcitrant because of human rights provisions sought by the EU in most such accords. The breakdown, however, appears unlikely to affect a wide range of technical bilateral meetings of experts to address other more day-to-day issues from transport to safety standards, that both feel useful
Tag it:
Delicious
Furl it!
Mister.Wong
NewsVine
YahooMyWeb
Technorati
Digg
Written by Our Correspondent
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Page 1 of 2
ImageBeijing cancels a longstanding meeting with the EU over the Dalai Lama
China's cancellation Wednesday of a long-planned annual EU-China summit appears to stem partly from recognition of its new economic might as lender of last resort in the global financial crisis as well as the culmination of three years of deteriorating political relations with the European Union.
Beijing’s pique, following EU leaders’ refusal, in particular French President Niolas Sarvozy, to abandon meetings with the Dalai Lama, deals another severe blow to worsening EU-China relations as well as dashing prospects of closer cooperation in addressing the current global financial and economic crisis.
The growing freeze began with Europe’s 2005 refusal to lift its nearly two-decade arms embargo. There have also been sometimes-tense trade disputes and emotional conflicts over human rights, particularly over Tibet.
China’s slap in the face to the EU is especially interesting as it comes at a time when Beijing appears to have forced the United Kingdom to shift its long-standing recognition of Tibet as a sovereign power. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, announced on October 29 that Britain would recognize the Himalayan kingdom as part of the People’s Republic of China. Tibet expert Robert Barnett, writing in the New York Times, speculated that the realignment could be traced to a request by Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, that China help to top up the International Monetary Fund, which has faced huge drawdowns because of the global financial crisis.
The crisis, Barnett wrote, “is going to do more than increase unemployment, bankruptcy and homelessness. It is also likely to reshape international alignments, sometimes in ways that we would not expect. As Western powers struggle with the huge scale of the measures needed to revive their economies, they have turned increasingly to China.”
The lengthy preparations for the cancelled summit had already been characterized as "disappointing and frustrating" and "lacking in ambition" by diplomats involved in Brussels.
As if to underline other immediate possible collateral damage, President Hu Jintao, in Greece during the week following a far-reaching trip that also took him to Latin America and the Asia-Pacific Summit in Lima, had signed lucrative economic transactions involving €4.3 billion to help develop the Port of Piraeus in Athens.
The cancellation of the meetings puts in considerable doubt near-term high-level contacts and ambitious but difficult negotiations over a broad treaty to seal the "strategic partnership" announced at a previous summit meeting. Beijing had already been recalcitrant because of human rights provisions sought by the EU in most such accords. The breakdown, however, appears unlikely to affect a wide range of technical bilateral meetings of experts to address other more day-to-day issues from transport to safety standards, that both feel useful
